Genshin Impact players furious over Hu Tao “breaking” co-op mode

Brent Koepp
Genshin Impact's Hu Tao next to a screenshot of Co-Op in Genshin Impact

After making her return to Genshin Impact in November 2021, players are complaining that Hu Tao is ‘ruining’ the miHoYo’s RPG’s co-op mode. 

Ever since her debut in Genshin Impact’s Update 1.3, players have been desperate to get another shot at Hu Tao. The Liyue funeral parlor Director is one of the most powerful characters in the game, dealing insane critical damage when paired with the Staff of Homa.

The 5-star character’s rerun in November, however, has created a major problem in the RPG’s co-op mode as stated in a viral post. According to many players, the heroine’s playstyle gimmick has led some fans to spoil the miHoYo title’s online matchmaking.

Genshin Impact Hu Tao wielding Staff of Homa screenshot
The 5-star character is insanely powerful in Genshin Impact.

Is Hu Tao ruining Genshin Impact co-op?

Hu Tao is able to execute a mind-blowing amount of damage once her health drops below 50%. Living up to her title of funeral Director, players have to master a playstyle of constantly keeping the heroine on the edge of death to land massive damage to enemies.

The unique mechanic has created major problems with the miHoYo RPG’s co-op mode according to the community. In a viral post on the r/GenshinImpact forum, a user detailed experiencing a wave of players obsessing over landing large critical damage while ignoring the rest of the enemies immune to fire. 

“While co-oping the Crimson Witch domain, I’ve seen a few people bring HuTao into the domain,” they wrote. “Then when the Pyro Slimes come up they do absolutely nothing, no attacking whatsoever. And then they only start attacking with their skill activated for the other 2 waves. They literally just bring Hu Tao to flex. And this has happened multiple times.”

The player was not alone in their negative experience, as other fans also detailed running into the same problem in co-op mode since Hu Tao’s rerun launched in Update 2.2. 

 “One of the reasons I don’t ever co-op unless I’m helping someone. Just makes domains harder,” a player wrote.

“It happened when Hu Tao first came out as well. One of the most annoying (and honestly unbelievable) is when I met a Hu Tao in Crimson Witch who used her E against the Pyro Slimes,” another said.

Genshin Impact fans discuss Hu Tao ruining Co Op on reddit

Several fans pointed out that another reason players focused on only landing high damage is to raise the friendship level of their character.

“Maybe they’re raising her friendship? That said, it’s pretty sh**ty in random co-op” and “They want to build up friendship XP faster. I think you get double friendship XP in co-op so it’s sort of two birds, one stone,” two comments read.

Genshin Impact players discuss friendship Hu Tao hurting Co Op Mode on reddit

Based on the many experiences fans posted, this appears to be a much larger issue than Hu Tao. Whenever a new 5-star character is introduced or a rerun event happens, players are using co-op to quickly raise friendship levels up.

At the time of writing, miHoYo has yet to respond to the backlash. Only time will tell if they ever address it. As a precaution, it’s probably best to avoid the online mode until a few weeks after the banner refresh.